A Third Class Reader - -Fourth Author:George Stillman Hillard Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HI -- THE KHAN AND THE DERVIS. A Tartar khan was once riding with his nobles on a hunting party. On the way he met with a dervis, t who proclaimed with a ... more »loud voice that he would give some good advice to any one who would bestow upon him a hundred pieces of gold. The khan was curious, and asked the dervis what this valuable counsel might be. " I will tell you, O king," was the reply, " when you shall have paid me the hundred pieces of gold." The khan ordered the money to be given him ; and he then said, in a very impressive manner, " Undertake nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." He then went on his way. The followers of the khan smiled, and made merry with the counsel which he had bought at so high a price. " It is true," said he, " that the words of the dervis convey a very simple and obvious rule of prudence; but on that very account it . may be the less heeded, and that is probably the reason why "the dervis inculcated it so earnestly. For the future it shall always be present in my mind. ' I will have the words written over the dooffe of my palace, upon the walls of my chambers, and upon the household articles of daily use." After some time, an ambitious governor made a plot to kill the khan and possess himself of the crown. He bribed the royal physician, with a great sum of money, to further his wicked plans ; and the physician promised to bleed the khan with a poisoned lancet, as soon as an occasion offered. The desired opportunity soon occurred. But when the attendants brought in a silver basin, to receive the blood, the physician saw engraved upon the rim the words, " Undertake nothing of which thou hast not well considered the end." Reading this inscription, he started back, and with obvious Khan, a Tartar king, or prince. t ...« less